HuTTON. — On the Moas of New Zealand. 165 



moa-hunters. All this may be quite true ; and yet it does not 

 follow that the moa-hunters were a very ancient race. The 

 explanation is that the land in the neighbourhood of Sumner has 

 been elevated at least 9ft. since the earliest of the moa-hunters 

 lived there. These earliest moa-hunters did not eat shell-fish, 

 because there were none there at that time, the present estuary 

 not being formed until the land rose ; and this also accounts for 

 there being no moa-hunter encampments on the flat east of 

 the sand-dunes, this flat being at the time under the sea, and 

 the line of sand-dunes forming the shore. If, also, we suppose 

 that this elevation of the land extended southwards to the 

 mouth of the Eakaia, we get an explanation of the fact that 

 the moa-hunters' ovens only occur on terraces 10ft. or 12ft. 

 above the sea. But Sir Julius von Haast was wrong when, 

 for this reason, he referred these moa-hunters back to 

 Pleistocene times. The elevation of the land 4ft. at Welling- 

 ton, and 9ft. at the Rimutaka Mountains, on the 23rd 

 January, 1855, is sufficient to show us that we cannot take an 

 elevation of 9ft. as a proof of any great lapse of time. I have 

 elsewhere shown" that I consider Dr. Haast to have been mis- 

 taken when he thought that he had found at the mouth of 

 the Shag River the same difference between moa-eaters and 

 shell-fish-eatersi as he did at Sumner ; for at the Shag River 

 the moa-huutei's ate both moas and estuarine shell-fish. 

 Indeed, the recent exploration of Monck's Cave by Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes :[ has proved that the moa still lived near Sumner after 

 the estuary had been formed, for the moa-eggshell, with shell- 

 membrane attached, was associated with estuarine shells and 

 MijtUus, and not with ocean shells as at Moa-bone Point 

 Cave. S 



The evidence relied upon by Sir J. von Haast to prove the 

 very gi-eat antiquity of the moa-hunters no doubt fails ; but, 

 on the other hand, are those reasons valid which have been 

 advanced for supposing that the moas lived in the South 

 Island long after they had been exterminated in the North 

 Island ? These are, first, the former occurrence of bones 

 lying on the surface of the ground ; and, secondly, the dis- 

 covery of bones with dried skin, ligaments, flesh, and feathers. 



* Trans. N.Z. Insfc., vol. viii., p. 103. Fragments of the skull of the 

 sea-elephant (Morunga) were found with the moa-bones. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 91. 



X Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxiii., p. 373. 



§ Inside Monck's Cave, as well as just outside, the shells were prin- 

 cipally Vemts stutchburyi, Mytilus, and AnipJdbola avellana. Faphia 

 neozelanica also occurred, but not so commonly as the others. The fol- 

 lowing marine shells are also in the collection from the cave, but I do not 

 know under what conditions they were found : Valuta pacifica, Ttirbo 

 smararjcliis, Haliotis iris, and Pectcii laticostatus. 



